Cheap Android Tablet from Aldi

I’ve just bought a 7″ Onix tablet from Aldi. It runs Android 4.0.4, has a 1GHz Cortex A8 CPU, 512M of RAM, 16G of flash storage, and a 800*480 display. They are selling rapidly and I don’t know how long they will last – probably you could get a returned one next week if you can’t get one today. But if you like pink then you may be able to get one (the black ones are selling out first).

The tablet seems like a nice piece of hardware, solid construction and it feels nice to hold. Mine has a minor screen defect, but that’s the sort of
thing you expect from a cheap device, apart from that the display is good.

The Wifi doesn’t seem to have as good a range as some other devices (such as my phones and the more expensive 10″ tablet I got from Kogan). This isn’t a
problem for me (the data intensive uses for this device will be in the same room as the AP) but could be a killer for some people. If you have your phone or a dedicated 3G Wifi AP in your pocket while using the tablet then it should be fine, but if you have an AP at the wrong end of your house then you could be in trouble. I found Youtube unusable due to slow downloading even when sitting next to my AP but I can play videos downloaded from iView that are on my local web server (which is more important to me). I expect that I will be able to play local copies of TED talks too.

The camera is bad by phone camera standards, fortunately I have no interest in using a tablet as a camera.

I had no real problems with the Google Play store (something that caused problems for some users of an earlier Aldi Android tablet). Generally the tablet works well.

The people who build Android for modern devices seem remarkably stupid when it comes to partitioning, every device I’ve seen has only a small fraction of the storage usable for apps. This tablet is the worst I’ve ever seen, it has 16G of storage of which there is 512M partitioned for apps of which only 400M is free when you first get the device! It comes pre-installed with outdated versions of the Facebook client and Google Maps (which isn’t very useful on a Wifi device) and some other useless things. If you upgrade them to the latest versions then you’ll probably lose another 100M of the 512M! Fortunately the Android feature to run apps from the VFAT partition works so I haven’t been prevented from doing anything by this problem yet.

In conclusion, it’s not the greatest Android tablet. But you don’t expect a great tablet for $100. What I hoped for was a somewhat low spec tablet that works reasonably well and that’s what I got. I’m happy.

42 comments to Cheap Android Tablet from Aldi

I bought one of these after work today, from the Aldi in Kilsyth. After wandering around for a bit, I asked a storeperson where they kept the tablets.
“They were all sold out”, she informed me. “We had to get a few shipped from another store that wasn’t selling them”
So basically, they were keeping a few of each colour under the counter at the checkout.

I bought the white one (to match my phone), and I can agree with everything the reviewer said above. I also got a small screen blemish (about 1mm across), but it’s unnoticeable with stuff moving about on the screen.
I only got this as a couch Facebooker/eBook reader, and for $100 you can’t go wrong.
I haven’t got Angry Birds working on it yet, but that might be because I’m thick.

Neil: Mine didn’t have any problems in that regard. It crashed and needed the reset button pressed when I tried running Ingress but still didn’t lose the time. Just don’t power it down and it should be fine. As an aside, I’ve had a similar problem of losing the date on reset on an Xperia X10 phone which wasn’t a cheap device at all ($600+ list price when new).

MJH: The Aldi I went to had huge boxes of them near the checkout. I guess they planned to sell heaps and just moved more boxes from the back as they got sold.

I found that Angry Birds Star Wars didn’t work, but it’s not the first Android device to refuse to run that.

I have the same tablet which I recently got and your saying you have some problem with the Internet and watching YouTube videos? That how ever has nothing to do with the tablet but your wifi as mine works perfectly fine. Also I’m not sure why your apps weren’t upgrade to the latest versions because mine were. Again your saying its only letting you use a certain amount of memory for your apps? My tablet isn’t doing that. I suggest you take your tablet back because you seem to be having problems that I am not.

I bought a Bauhn tablet last time Aldi were selling them. I think it was around $200. I returned it 2 days later. The touch screen bent when pressing icons on the home screen. The only tech stuff I’ll buy from Aldi is the Medion brand, they have some basic commitments to quality.

Courtney: My wifi works well with other Android devices, including playing Youtube. I don’t want to waste storage upgrading built-in apps to the latest versions when I never even wanted them to be installed in the first place. As I said in the post, it’s not a great tablet, but it works reasonably well and it’s worth $100 to me.

Dave: This device is not a Bauhn and seems better in some ways than the Bauhn tablet you refer to. One of the major benefits is being $100 cheaper, I’m happy to spend $100 on something that doesn’t do everything I’d like, but I wouldn’t spend $200 for that.

In terms of Bauhn devices, I never managed to get the built-in MP3 player in my Bauhn noise-cancelling headphones to work. But I’m still happy as I only bought them for noise cancelling and the ability to connect them to my phone is a handy thing that I didn’t even consider at purchase time. I’m still happy with them, they do what I bought them to do even though they suck for some other people.

I returned my 2 x Onix 7″ tablets today to Aldi for a refund, one tablet only lasted 3 days of normal use, the screen went all yellow/orange color and was stuck this way ,it would not shut down again.
I am very disappointed because of the time i wasted to try and get my head around the frustrations of anroid issues,like it has 16G of storage of which there is 512M partitioned for apps of which only 400M is free ,like etbe said above,also very poor WIFI range etc,etc.
I found this unit very unfriendly to use and I don’t even think its worth $99-,very poor product from Onix and this tablet is a waste of time.
ALDI should not sell this again it looks bad on them, I had another person at my work return this same Onix tablet they had bought on Friday to Aldi because it kept turning itself off all the time ,spend a bit more and get something decent.

63off: I’ve never tried charging from USB. It’s something I will have to test though. Generally the only reason I have for using a USB charger is when travelling as it means I need one less charger. But I probably won’t take such a tablet when travelling, the combination of a phone and a netbook or laptop should be adequate.

Dean: So far the worst problem I’ve found with mine is short battery life and excessive heat production when in use or charging. But it’s generally working well enough. I’ve had it crash but pressing RESET got it going again.

My onix tablet only holds a charge for 1 day… is this normal? The book says that it takes around 3 charges to work properly… I have done this, so does that mean that it is now as good as it gets? Have hardly used it either.. as the intern constantly drops out. Very disappointed.

I purchased one of these at the third store I went to on WEdnesday. Disappointingly I purchased a faulty unit as I could not get it to power up/turn on once I got it home (neither the power or USB cable worked). I returned it for a refund as the shop I bought it from had sold out by the time I returned – probably for the best in hindsight!!

Hopeless manual. The important things such as how long to charge it for is not mentioned anywhere (e.g. 6 hours? 1 day ? 48 hours ?). I charged via DC adaptor, after 24 hours i checked only 92% charged. Left it on for a further 12 hours, and had only gone to 96%. I never observed it saying 100%. That must suck or i have a bad battery ! Looks like a candidate for a return.

Very poor product from ALDI /ONIX , alot of problems, waste of time this Tablet the problems get bigger and bigger . I returned all 3 Onix tablets today,i found this tablet the poorest i have ever experinced ,it should not be sold and Aldi should be ashamed of fooling us in liking we got a bargain, its a joke ,issues,issues,all of the above and more. I feel sorry for the mums and dads who bought these for there kids , your going to have some very disappointed kids.Its not worth $99- , this is rubbish ,you have been duped by ALDI /ONIX of your money .

Not happy with this tablet,i had problems with charging all day and not full,wasted quickly with light use,hot,slow,freezing,restarting with out requesting,poor wifi,saying couldn’t download any more ,no space when downloaded 8 basic games when i suppose to have 16GB . Thought i got lucky when i got 2 of these ONIX ALDI TABLETS, no i got sucked in and i wouldn’t pay $50- for this as the time you waste on this one is not worth it .

I have the Archos 101G9, which has 8GB internal storage and all apps are stored in the same partition where all other user data is stored. That partition is about 6.6GB big. I’m currently using 2.2GB for apps (quite a few games, from Humble Bundle etc.)

Tobias: Is that partition used as a USB block device? If so it will cause the apps in question to be killed when you connect it to your PC. If not then you probably need a separate SD card for storing media files etc. I would prefer to have all internal storage in the phone used for internal phone stuff (apps and app data) and then buy a SD card suitably sized for the media use (4G for me, 16G for some people I know).

Dean: I had the same problem within the first hour of use. the screen zoomed in and i couldn’t shut it down. eventually i managed to unlock it and open an app which reset the screen back to normal.
I bought 2 of these 7″ and the second has a problem with the screen being detached to the back case. Is the back cover necessary? ( ;-) ) next time i go into Aldi i will ask them weather it is supposed to be that way and then , and i quote, I will throw it on the ground. (the lonely island) :D

I bought a pink one for my daughter and charged it on 5 december, turned it off put it back in the box. this morning my little girl opened it up and it does not move from the screen that Displays ANDROID…. Its back on charge but wont go any further… does anyone have any suggestions???

No, this Archos tablet uses MTP to connect to the PC, so the App partition is never disconnected from Android. Granted, MTP is a PITA to work with (On Linux and Windows), but most of the time I just swap MicroSD cards around. OTOH, the tablet disables App2SD, so you can never move any apps to any external storage…

The first problem on the list of MANY problems with my Onix table is that firstly it wouldn’t even let me download apps from the play store. So I did what any normal person in there right mind would do and restart it. But of course the problem couldn’t be fixed that easily, the tablet wouldn’t even turn on! All it would ever show was the android symbol. So i went to try and wipe the whole tablet in hopes it might fix it. Nope. The screen then just flashes white then dies. So glad I got excited about it now..

Further to my comment on Dec 10, i had no probs so far (wireless connected straight away, can go on Play Store, etc), yet to try SD card when i buy one. Just wondering what happens in a few years (if i still have it) when the battery carks it? Chuck the whole thing out, or is the battery removable / replaceable?

I received an Onix tab for xmas and have charged it fully and discharged it etc all done correctly. It has been charged about 5 x and now the battery life is at 2.5 hours max. Does this sound right? Ls the battery replaceable or is it just a throw away gadget and going to get worse the more it gets used?? Thanks Chris

We brought one of these tablets from Aldi as well on the 05/12/12 as a xmas present for the 25/12/12 and has stopped working on the 28/12/12 we have the same problem Karen, I believe to take it back for a refund.

Very disappointed! purchased 3 of these tablets all not working. Same as Karen
the Android shows display and moves no further the other has just died even after being charged. I will be asking for a refund. Now have disappointed kids with no xmas presents!

Hi Scott, I had the same happen the first time I inserted the sd card. I used a very small watch makers screwdriver + got down beside one side of the sd card & sort of flicked it back out very gently (assuming you have unmounted the sd card thru menu options). Happy ectracting, hope this works for you too. Make sure you feel the resistance of the bounce when inserting it again or the same thing will happen again. Goid luck Chris

Got 2 of these tablets for xmas presents for the kids. Seemed to be working ok up until recently.

My boys tablet wont switch on after a charge up after use. Seemed warm after a morning charge, let it cool down, but still didnt work. Rang up 1300 number provided in user manual, they told me to do user manual factory reset, didnt work.

Are now in process of sending tablet back to supplier for replacement.

Other than that problem, found tablet ok for kids use. A good learning tool for kids. Seems pretty basic for cheap price. Screen resolution basic, camera very basic , slow at times in processing even with the 1ghz processor. Storage is a problem for kids as they want to download more than a dozen games without it complaining about storage.

Will have to buy a couple of 16gb cards to put in. I still have time up my sleeve for the 60 day store refund. If any more issue arise, ill be returning both tablets with all the accessories. Good to read the recent posts to give me further warnings, give ,e time to make decision.

received onix tablet for birthday 27/12/12 it died on the 6/1/13 worked great up till then. although battery life wasnt long seemed to be legit until the screen wouldnt go past the android start up wont be buying anything from aldi again . called 1300 number was told to return the tablet for refund . the funny thing was the guy from TEMPO said he was surprised .
lol really mate looks like i wasnt the only one with a problem

Stephen, have you tried the factory reset button on back of tablet. If so and hasn’t worked contact the customer service number for onix they might be able to tell you where to get what your looking for. Good luck

My mum bought 4 of them as gifts for christmas next thing i know im listening to music playing flow the screen starts fading into a bright white then switched its self off tried reset button and everything its a piece of A grade S**T 70 dollar mobiles work better if anyone knows how i can fix it let me know none of them are even installing onto the computer :| ready to throw it threw ALDIs window!!!

I live in WA and did no research on this product before I bought mine for my son’s bday from ebay, saying still under warranty but received no receipt of the first purchase (I believe it has come from Aldi NSW) This has failed also and will not switch on at all, And I can’t even claim warranty!!!! Very angry….and a very upset little boy

I sent my Onix Tablet back after 5 months to tempo to be fixed as it would not turn on. They sent me a new one and 3 days later screen starting flashing, turned off and again will not turn on. Need to decide to send back AGAIN to fix and hope for 3rd time lucky or just take back and get my money back .